The present invention relates to automotive gauges, such as water, voltage and oil gauges. More particularly, the present invention relates to housings or brackets designed to support automotive gauges in place within a vehicle.
Automotive gauges are useful to monitor a wide range of operating conditions within a vehicle. Water, voltage, oil, engine speed, temperature and other conditions are routinely monitored in order to insure proper engine operation and to identify maintenance or repair requirements.
Many vehicles have a limited number of gauges, e.g. for fuel, temperature and engine speed, with other conditions monitored by means of a warning light, rather then gauges. Such warning lights may be viewed as inadequate to provide the level of information desired with respect to the monitored condition, e.g. changes in water temperature, voltage or oil pressure in the vehicle. For example, in some circumstances the water temperature light may not turn on until the water temperature is already far too high. Closer monitoring of the water temperature, which can be effected by use of gauges, may allow the user to take remedial steps.
For these and other reasons add on gauges have become a staple of automotive aftermarket products. The gauges are typically mounted in groups of two or three to a bracket, which may be secured to the vehicle dashboard. Conventional arrangements of such gauge assemblies 11; each having gauges mounted upon a supporting bracket are illustrated at FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings. As shown therein automotive gauge bracket 15 supports a plurality of automotive gauges, 13a, 13b, 13c. The gauges, 13a, 13b, 13c, commonly include a cylindrical gauge body 17, which extends through aperture 19 of housing 15. The body is insertable through aperture 19 until the attached gauge bezel 21 abuts against the bracket 15. Locking ring 23 is threadably engagable to the gauge body 17, to compress against the rear of bracket 15, to hold the gauge in place within the bracket. The bracket 15 may be secured to the vehicle by means of screws or other fasteners, e.g., extending through bracket aperture 25.
While such contemporary gauge kits are useful for many purposes, certain installation or replacement difficulties may arise. For example, depending upon the mounting location, it may be difficult for the installer to reach behind the bracket, through electrical or hydraulic connections, to manipulate the locking ring to hold the gauges in place. Space availability may be limited such that a locking ring of significant depth may be difficult to apply to the gauge from the rear. For example, it may be that the locking ring arrangement requires that the electrical or hydraulic connections be installed from the rear, before or after the gauge has been locked into place within the bracket. These types of difficulties, frequently not realized by a backyard mechanic until after an initial installation effort is ongoing, can prove to be frustrating and time consuming.
Similar difficulties can arise when a gauge becomes defective and needs to be replaced. Moreover, where substitute gauges are approximately the same size, the mounting mechanisms may be different and incompatible with the size, shape or spacing of the original bracket. Similarly, the locking ring from the original gauge may not be suitable to engage threads on a substitute gauge.
Consequently, while the mechanism for mounting gauges within an aftermarket automotive gauge kit are relatively simple, they may result in a variety of difficulties, depending upon the space and location situation, which can be particularly vexing to backyard mechanics.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an automotive gauge mounting bracket that can support a variety of automotive gauges, including gauges having different size bodies, to which automotive gauges can be simply mounted, without the need for rear mounted locking rings or other such rear manipulated locking members.